Rockaway Kite Festival

August 21 - 22, 2004

I always look forward to this festival. It is not that I dislike where I live outside of Chicago, but it sure is nice to fly kites in other parts of the country. I look forward to the Rockaway Kite Festival as a great place to fly and meet old and new friends.
Each year I have a great time and this is due to a huge amount of work done by the Rockaway Chamber of Commerce and Sky Festival Productions.

As always I will be showing you pictures mainly of big kites, as once I have put big kites up, I don't like to leave the area. Mike Agner and Pete Dolphin joined me flying giant kites this year, it is always nice to see friends, even if the field gets a bit crowded. The only reason we were crowded were the roped off areas of endangered beach plants, a $7,000 fine for messing with them. We stayed clear.

Yet again, I do not have good pictures of the smaller kites. Of the other invited guests, Barry Poulton is the only one whose kites I managed to get a decent picture of. My pictures of the kites of Iqbal Hussien, Ron and Sandy Gibian and Ramlal Tan are not useable. Nor do I have good pictures of the sport kite competition that was going on. Just lots of pictures of fuzzy dots. I guess I just need a new camera with a longer zoom. Or I could get another kite. Guess which is going to happen!

Over the two days there was quite a display of big kites in the air. Mike Agner's and Pete Dolphin's Rays, Mike's and my Octopi, the Devil and my new plane.

Gee, it must be a really nice kite that Beatrix is flying that all of those guys with cameras are flocking around.

Pete and Donna put on quite a show with the ribbon arch flying over the Devil.

And during a mid day wind lull, Roger Chewning flew one of his huge Jordan Airforms by hand.

And later, Barry Poulton's kites filled the sky, this is just a small sample of the MANY kites that Barry had in the sky.

By the end of the festival everyones feet were both tan and dirty. Can you identify the English, French and American feet?

In fact, some of the fliers were literally dead on thier feet

After the festival, we went to a local eatery and noticed this wonderfully sea worthy
craft tied up. We later went onboard to admire its sparling amenities and the great
PA system used to chastize those who were not smart enough to board the craft.

So, after a long and tiring two days, I collapsed on the bed in the hotel room and wondered: JUST WHAT THE H*** IS THAT NASTY STUFF ON THE CEILING?